The exemplary stories of four great protagonists of the twentieth century – the director Lina Wertmüller, the opera singer Maria Callas, the entrepreneur Wanda Ferragamo and the actress Franca Valeri – are at the center of the new season of “Illuminate”, a docu-series in four episodes produced by Anele in collaboration with Rai Cultura on air from Monday 2 January at 11.20 pm on Rai 3. Drawing from the real and personal vocations of the four actresses-narrators – Michela Andreozzi, Silvia D’Amico, Anna Valle and Emanuela Fanelli – and crossing film narration , archival documents and direct testimonies, the biographies and the most significant choices of the four protagonists are retraced.
In the first episode Michela Andreozzi, through the use of a narrative trick, plays a director who explores the life and career of Lina Wertmüller, the most famous Italian filmmaker in the world, capable of revolutionizing Italian cinema by speaking of social, political and sexual in a grotesque and comical way. Subsequently Silvia D’Amico, preparing to stage a theatrical monologue inspired by Maria Callas, traces the experience of the great artist and the continuous struggle between her two souls: the woman and the diva, her transformation artistically and physically, the constant work that she had to do on herself to make the “public body” of the artist coexist with the “private body” of the person. Anna Valle, on the other hand, plays the exemplary figure of Wanda Ferragamo in the docu-film that brings to the screen her talent as an exceptional entrepreneur, her humility and her moral rigour, while Emanuela Fanelli, passionate about comedy theatre, recounts the life of Franca Valeri and, as she prepares to stage one of her sketches, she traces the career of the woman who revolutionized the world of entertainment and broke the taboo on female comedy.
Among the many illustrious witnesses who have given their valuable contribution to the story, many friends, family and colleagues from the world of art, culture and entertainment. For Lina Wertmüller, Claudia Gerini, Anna Melato, their daughter Maria Zulima, the actor and grandson Massimo Wertmüller, the journalist Laura Delli Colli, the director and collaborator Valerio Ruiz, the sociologist and friend Domenico De Masi, the set designer and her husband’s assistant Virginia Vianello; for Maria Callas, the biographer and collector of objects that belonged to the singer Michele Nocera, the soprano Selene Zanetti, the Head of the Zeffirelli Foundation archive Caterina D’Amico, the Orchestra Conductor Massimiliano Stefanelli, Enrico Stinchelli and Michele Suozzo, authors and radio speakers; for Wanda Ferragamo, Carlo Conti, her daughter Giovanna Ferragamo, her grandchildren Ginevra Visconti and Diego di San Giuliano, the Director of the museum and of the Ferragamo Foundation Stefania Ricci, the journalist and fashion critic Mariella Milani and the historic butler Silvano; for Franca Valeri her daughter Stefania Bonfadelli, the actresses Cinzia Leone and Gabriella Franchini, the director of the Parenti Theater in Milan Andree Ruth Shammah, the director and television presenter Pino Strabioli, the director and artistic director Giorgio Ferrara and his friend Michele Della Valle. The story also unfolds through visits to the places that served as a backdrop to the events of the four protagonists: from Palazzo Spini Feroni in Florence, headquarters of Wanda Ferragamo’s company, to her estate in Fiesole, in the Florentine countryside, from Lake Bracciano, place where Franca Valeri lived, at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia to tell the story of Lina Wertmüller, up to Verona, Sirmione and the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza to tell the story of Maria Callas.
“Illuminate” is an Anele production in collaboration with Rai Cultura. A docu-series in four episodes produced by Gloria Giorgianni, directed by Marco Spagnoli (Lina Wertmüller), Matteo Raffaelli (Maria Callas), Margherita Ferri (Wanda Ferragamo) and Maria Iovine (Franca Valeri). Associate producers: Tore Sansonetti and Carlotta Schininà.
